I mean, the Acts chapter four.
Acts chapter four. Our text will be found in verses
twenty four through verse twenty eight. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Rage Against Christ. The Rage Against Christ. Verse 24 says, And when they
had heard that. They lifted up their voice to
God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God which has
made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is,
who by the mouth of thy servant David has said. Why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before."
to be done. The heathen. Why do the heathen
rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing. The first thing I want us to
understand is that there is a rage and alliance in this world against
Christ. There is a rage and an alliance between the world and religion
against the Lord Jesus Christ. This age that we live in is clearly
anti-Christ. I'll tell you, there are five
churches within a mile of this building. There are five churches.
But I tell you, there are five different gods being preached, four of which are false. And
the God that is preached here is the God who made heaven and
earth and all that is in them, and God who has done whatsoever
He pleases, who sits in the heavens and has done all His counsel.
That's the God that is preached here. Everywhere else He is reliant
upon man for something. That is not God. This is God. And we preach our God who made
heaven and earth. Lost men have always and will
always despise the very sight of the law or the Word of God. You think about this. How often
do men rage against somebody putting a Ten Commandments on
a building somewhere or a nativity scene? I tell you the truth,
I don't care for either one of them to be on a building or in
front of any place. Both of them are misused and
both of them are idols that men worship. The law only condemns
me. It doesn't help me in any way.
It condemns me. It shows me what I am. Men don't like that, but they
don't like even public displays. Why? Because their own conscience
is against them. This is why evil men hate the
very appearance of religion. They're glad when they can judge
other ones based on their own immorality, their own judgment. They don't mind judging others
so long as it's justice by their own evil standard. And Paul says this in Romans,
that they are condemned because of this, their own conscience.
Go to Romans chapter two. Romans chapter 2 and verse 1,
it says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judges. Well, who in here has not judged
someone somewhere at some time? We have all made judgments. And
I'll tell you, if you say you haven't judged, you're a fool
if you haven't. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doeth the same
things." But we are sure that the judgment of God is according
to truth against them which commit such things. You see, when we point out sin,
a man and a woman living together without being married is sin.
Oh, how dare you judge me? I didn't. God did. And you know what? You've judged
someone else for doing the exact same thing in some capacity. And you're guilty. Your own conscience
condemns you. This is why men hate the very
appearance of religion. And this religious age, not only
does the irreligious despise the religious, but also the religious
people despise the irreligious. You bring an atheist in the middle
of, you know, a group of so-called Christians, and they'll attack
that man. They'll flog him. What about this? What about this?
They want to debate. They want to debate him, put
him to shame in some way. This age of social, political
and so-called moral gospel that is preached against those who
oppose religion. The message of our day. Is how
do we get our country back on the right track? Is that not
the message of this day? Is that not the message of of
the social gospel? Yes. Well, how do we get back
to the church founders? Let's just go back to the church.
We need to really get back there. And anybody who's opposed to
that, I'll tell you, you're You're irreligious and we're against
you. The religious people, they oppose
homosexuality, they oppose divorce, they oppose immoral violence
and evil lifestyles, and they are about making men better citizens. I'll tell you, I cannot condemn
any of those things because I'm against those things myself.
And I'm for somebody being better. I love my my children to be outstanding
citizens. There's nothing wrong with that.
But that's not the gospel. That's not what we're here for.
And I'll tell you, the only time these two warring factions can
come together, the only time that you'll ever see the irreligious
and the religious come together is when this gospel of the grace
of God is preached. That's the only time. When Christ
is spoken of with boldness and assurance and authority by the
man called of God to preach the gospel, it is then the world
and the religious will come together and rage against us. They'll
rage against you. The only time these two ever
came together was when we preached the Lord Jesus Christ That salvation
is of the Lord. You can't save yourself. You are absolutely and utterly
depraved and hopeless of any righteousness in yourself. Now,
men hate that. I don't care if it's irreligious
or religious. Both of them hate that. And only God can save you. There's nothing you can do. Well,
they don't like that either. They don't like that either.
Now, the Pharisees, the religious rulers, hated the Roman government. They hated them. It was an obstinate hatred. Every
time they could do anything to disrupt the Roman government,
they would do it. They always were complaining,
complaining people. Can anybody know what that's
like to complain? Yes, we're much like them. And
I'll tell you, there was no love for them by the Roman government.
Pilate hated the Jews. One time the Jews, they had brought
this statue in, and the Jews had come out against this statue
of Caesar. They wouldn't worship it. And
Pilate slew those men that were in that place. He slew them. He killed them. There was animosity
and hatred of the greatest kind between these two. And yet, when
did they come and find common ground? It says, for of a truth, in verse
27 of our text, for of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, the false king of the
Jews there, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles, that's
all that's not Jews, and the people of Israel, that's all
the Jews, were gathered together. They were gathered together against
Christ, and this is the only place that men will come together
and put aside every difference that they have and form a confederacy
against Christ. This is not new in our day, for
the heathen rage and the religious imagine a vain thing, and they
both hate the Christ of the gospel. Now, this is not to say the religious
people hate the Christ of their imagination. Now, don't get me
wrong. These people are zealous. The
religious world of this day is zealous for their Christ. They're
zealous. Man, they're knocking on doors,
they're running around, and they're giving out tracts, and they're
going out, and they're so-called evangelizing, trying to reach
people for Jesus. He can't reach them, so they've
got to reach out there and get them for Him. Now, they don't
deny such a Christ. And I'll tell you, the world
will tolerate such a Christ, too. They'll tolerate such a
helpless, pathetic Savior as that. And if they don't get too religious,
the world will leave them alone. If they don't get too religious,
the world will leave them alone, too. This is because the Jesus of
this age is not the Holy Son of God. Christ of this age is one that
came into the world to be an example. My Christ did not come
to just be an example. My Christ came to actually save
His people from their sins. That's the whole purpose of His
work. It's the whole purpose of His coming into this world,
is to save His people from their sins. Their Christ died for all
men without exception, and their God wants all men to be saved,
but He can't save them. He can't do anything for them. Their weak, effeminate Christ
is standing at a door of someone's heart and can't open it. I'll tell you, there is no hatred
for the God of this age by this world or by irreligious people,
religious people. Why? Because He has no power
or authority. But we don't preach a God like
that. We don't preach a God like that. Our God reigneth over all
things. That means you. That means me. And that means them. God reigns
over all things. I was thinking this morning,
praying that God would give me boldness to speak, but also that
God would give everybody I'm listening to ears to hear. And when they do, When God does
give the people you witness to ears to hear, and they hear what
you're saying, they're going to hate you. And I want you to
know that. I want you to understand that they're going to hate you.
Christ said they would hate you. Do you believe Christ? Do you
trust in Christ and hate? He said they're going to hate
you. If they hated me, they'll hate
you. They'll hate you. I'm kind of concerned when everybody's
very accepting of what I'm saying. I'm more concerned than when
people... I would much rather somebody get totally, absolutely
angry at me than to just smile and nod. I don't know what that
means. But that's what happens. Most of the time, they just smile
and nod. They don't have any clue of what I'm saying. Matter
of fact, when they speak, they'll say something directly opposite
of what I'm saying. I say, where'd that come from?
That's not what I said. When men come to me and they
say, what is thy beloved above another's beloved? I want to
be able to tell them. Don't you? I want to be able
to tell the difference. Now, Eric, I can tell the difference
between you and Gil. When I look at you, I can just tell the difference. I know the difference. And when
you preach Christ to me, I'll know the difference. If he's
Christ or if he's not, I'll know the difference. If you're preaching
a Christ that died for everybody, I don't know who that is. I don't
know who he is. My Christ died for his people
to save his people from their sins. That's who my Christ died
for. My Christ was successful. My
Christ is the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, who was made
man. He was God of every God and man
of every man. I'm not here to explain this.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flood
without controversy. I'm not here to debate this either.
We don't debate this. And I'll tell you, if their Christ
is not sovereign, if their Christ is not successful, then their
Christ is not Christ. And we better make sure that
they know that. That's our mission. That's exactly what we live and
breathe for. You don't live to work. You don't
live for your job. You don't live for a paycheck.
You don't live to see the world. You don't live for these things.
You don't live for your family. If you're a believer in Christ,
you live for Christ and Christ alone. And your hope is that everyone
around you would know your Savior, who He is, what He's done for
you. And so the heathen rage, they
unify against Christ. Well, let's look at this Christ
again. I want us to see that this Christ
is sovereign. Our God that we preach is sovereign. Look at your text again and see
this, that when these men rose up together, everybody rose up
together against Christ. Why did they do that? They've been wanting to do that.
Ever since the Lord first opened His mouth and began to preach,
the first time He preached in Luke chapter 4, they wanted to
throw Him off the hill. Why? Because He preached that
God is sovereign. He said there were many widows
in the day of Elijah, but to none was sent but that Gentile
woman. Oh, you want to make somebody
mad? That made them mad. That's stuck right in their heart
because they hated the Gentiles. They despised them. I'll tell you, when God reveals
to you that He has done whatsoever His counsel and His hand determined
before to be done, when men finally realize that's what you're preaching,
they're going to hate it. They're going to hate you and
they're going to hate your God. I would rather somebody come
up and say, well, man, that's that's not my God. I said, well,
I'm glad you finally realized it. I'm glad you finally seen
that we don't worship the same God just because he has the same
name. He has the same title or something that you give him doesn't
make him God. God created all things by the
power by his own sovereign power, and he still sits on the heavenly
throne ruling over all things. Our God in the heavens has done
whatsoever he hath pleased." Is that your God? And it pleased God to choose
a people for himself. This is the beginning of the
gospel. You want to know where the gospel began? It began with
God. Any gospel that does not begin
with God is not the gospel. Any gospel that begins with you
is not the gospel. God purposed to save a certain
number of people throughout the history of mankind and even into
the future. God has a people that He has
put in Christ from before the foundation of the world. He has
purpose to save them, even before they were born, having done any
good or any evil that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand. For Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. It's not of him that willeth
nor him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy." Our God
is sovereign to choose a people. There was nothing in this people
that was different from any of the other fallen race of Adam.
Religion loves to separate itself from others, to exalt itself
above others. And when sin is pointed out to
them, they hate it. They despise it. They say, no,
you may be a sinner, but I'm not a sinner. No. Liar. You liar. You are a sinner. And you know what? So am I. See,
I'm not exalting myself when I call you a sinner because I
know what I am. I know what you are. There's nothing that, if we are
believers in the true Christ, there's nothing in us that moved
God to save us, or purpose to save us. Nothing. Nothing different.
Nothing different. God chose to save his people
because he would. There's no reason otherwise. from the same lump of sinful
humanity He made unto Himself vessels of honor and vessels
of dishonor. And who are we to despise what
God has already determined to do? Who are we? Who art thou,
O man, to reply against God? Behold, that our God is the only
true and sovereign God, who chose and loved a people. He chose
to love some, and He hated and rejected others. Paul asks in Romans 9 concerning
this, he says, why then does God find fault? He knew you'd
ask that question. How is it that God chose a people
before they had done anything? To save them, And yet, when they
sin, He finds fault. How is that? Who are you? Who
are you? Go ahead, shake your fist in
the face of God and see where it gets you. We don't do this because God
is God and He has a right to do with us as He pleases. I bow down to that. I bow down
to that. What else can I do? Why do the heathen rage and imagine
a vain thing? Isn't that effort foolishness? Isn't it foolish to try to rage
against God whom you can't even see? Foolishness. God has the right to do with
us as he pleases. And he desired to magnify his
own grace and power in saving sinners. And second of all, the heathen
rage against Christ because it was by grace that we were accepted
in Christ. It was by grace we were put in
the Beloved. The Father purposed to save some.
And all those he purposed to save, he put in Christ. Now,
what does that mean? We are made accepted in the Beloved. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
6, it says we are made accepted. We are made meek. We are qualified
in the Beloved. In Christ. Christ became our
surety. What is a surety? It's a guarantee.
Jesus Himself guaranteed the Father that He would pay for
our sins. He stood in our place and He
said, Father, I will pay for all the sins of those You have
given Me. In Proverbs 8, we see that He
was from the beginning and He was chosen. He was set up. You
can read that in, I think it's verse 20, 31. 29 and 30, or 30 and 31. It says that I was set up from before the foundation of
the world. Set up to do what? Set up to be the mediator. Set
up to be the one to stand between His elect and God. The one to
stand up and to pay for our sins. He purposed to do that. This
was not by accident or chance that Jesus came down. This was
not a Hail Mary pass or something like that. This was on purpose. On purpose. My salvation is not
an accident. It's on purpose. It's on purpose. So from the beginning of time,
God declared the good news of His Son. From the beginning.
In the beginning. God created the heavens and the
earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. There's
the gospel right there. That's the gospel from the beginning.
I was without form and void and dark. And the Spirit of God moved
on the face of this dark, sinful heart. And God said, Let there
be light. And there was light. And the
light revealed to me God. Christ is the light. He is the light of men. Scripture
says, and the light, He is the light, and the light was the
life of men. That's us. The gospel was preached from
the beginning. And when Christ came down, He came down to suffer. The scripture
says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. When we were gathered together, we were gathered together. I
know I was born in sin and hatred. And I, like this world, was gathered
with them at one time. But my hope is this, that I was
always in Christ. That God had already placed me
in Christ. And God, even before Christ died,
saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. He was satisfied. This world does whatsoever it
wanted to. When they gathered together in
this place to crucify Christ, they did exactly what they wanted
to. Not one of those people were there involuntarily. They wanted to be there. They
wanted to kill the Savior. But in doing so, they did exactly
what God had determined in purpose to be done. The death of Lord
Jesus Christ was to make an offering for sin and the bringing in of
everlasting righteousness. Go over to Daniel. Look at this
prophecy. Daniel chapter 9. Is Ezekiel then Daniel? Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, chapter 9, and verse 24. I love God's precision. I'm not so precise at many things,
but God is absolutely precise. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to
make reconciliation for iniquity. and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision in prophecy, and to anoint the most
holy." God had determined the appointed
time that Christ would come. He appointed a work for Christ
to do. What is that work? To finish
the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to uh, red make
reconciliation for iniquity. I like that sins, iniquities
and transgressions. He had made an end of it all.
He finished it. That's what he was sent to do to finish it,
to put it to an end, to kill it, to kill it and to bring in everlasting righteousness. And I tell you, by the authority
of God, he has already done it. Did it. Finished. So where's
sin? It's gone. It's gone. Oh, don't you see it every day?
Yes, I see it every day in myself. Doesn't matter. It's gone. It's
gone. Christ paid all my sins. He suffered for all my sin. On that cross, God imputed all
my guilt to Christ. I tell you, at times I have a
guilty conscience, don't you? I know I do. But my conscience
is answered with this. Behold, the Lamb of God. He died
for my sins. He's the answer to my conscience. He's the answer to this world
when they look at me and see my sin nature. Jesus Christ died on purpose
to bring in an everlasting righteousness for his people. and the heathen
rage at our God who purposed to call us by this gospel." Oh,
surely the world and lost religion believes there are many ways
that people are saved. You can, I don't know, have a
play. You can put up one of the, oh,
it's almost Christmas, they're going to do that, journey to
Bethlehem or whatever. I don't know. They're going to
do something, and they're going to have a little baby under some
hay, and they're going to say, oh, we're trying to save souls.
We're trying to show you the gospel. No, that's not how men
are saved. Men are saved by the preaching
of the gospel, and that's it. Not by musicals or entertainment
or guest speakers or anything else. They are not saved unless
God has sent them a man to preach them this gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace to everyone that believes in Christ. The Scripture says, my word shall
go forth out of my mouth and it will accomplish where into
I sin. This morning, if you leave here and you rejoice in Jesus
Christ, it's because God sent that message to your heart, not
because of this great speaker that stands before you. If you get anything out of this
message, it's got to be God. And if you walk out of here lost,
know this, the same message that saved another condemns your heart
and you walk out lost because God sent it to harden your heart.
Now you're responsible. The scriptures are clear. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But unless God does something
for you, you will not believe. Jesus Christ is the only way,
the only truth and the only life, and no man comes to God but by
him. And this gospel is how men come
to God by Christ, by the hearing of the gospel. Go to Romans chapter
10 and follow me very simply. This is not complicated. It's
not God. God knows we are dumb sheep.
And this is this is not meant to complicate things. It's meant
to make it easy for us. The Scripture saith, whosoever,
verse 11, believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon Him." Now, isn't that great? I'll tell you, if you're a sinner
in need of mercy, that's great. That's great. If you're a sinner,
this is for you. Call on the name of the Lord.
When? Now. Right now. This is not something
you wait for. It's not waiting for some experience
or some big epiphany. Believe now! God commands you
to believe now. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's good. Because I call on Him every single
day. Every day I need Him. But how shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? How can you say that you have
called upon the Lord if you've not believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ? You can't. If you call on somebody, if I call on you, it's because
I know you're there. I'm not going to call on somebody
that's not there. And how shall they believe in
him in whom they have not heard? Isn't that something? Isn't that
easy to understand? How can you believe in somebody
you've never heard of? You can't. It's impossible. And
how shall they believe without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinners? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not obeyed, all
obeyed the gospel for Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed,
I report. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. If you have never heard of the
people that have never heard of the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.
Somebody who is standing today and preaching a false gospel,
who is not sin of God. No one is saved in their ministry. No one. How can they believe on Him in
whom they have not heard? They have not heard of a successful
Savior. They have not heard of the God-man
mediator, Jesus Christ. They've not heard that salvation
is of the Lord. How in the world can they believe
on Him in whom they've not heard? And if God didn't send them,
how are they preaching? And why do men listen to them? May God give us then boldness
to speak and preach His gospel. That's what these people prayed
for, boldness. That these men may have boldness.
The world can rage. I don't care. God, You know their
threatenings. Behold, God, their threatenings
against us. And after that, Lord, just give
us boldness in the midst of their threatenings to preach this gospel. Salvation. by the grace of God
through Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Because it's going to take boldness. This week, it's become evidently
personal to me and my family. that we have somebody that we
knew and were acquaintances with, they finally heard what I was
saying. They didn't even allow my children to play with their
children. Why do the heathen rage? Why
do they imagine a vain thing? Why do they gather together against
the Lord and against His anointed? And I'll tell you, if you're
not believing in Christ, you're raging against God, not me. You're raging
against God. And God will destroy you. God will destroy you. But if we bow down and worship
God, as He presents Himself, abase yourself. Own who you are. And see that your only hope is a person. Not a doctrine. Not a creed. Not just something
you learned as a kid. A person. Jesus Christ. the God-man and Redeemer of his
people. He has saved me. He is saving
me. He shall save me. He is the author
and finisher of my faith. I don't even author my own faith.
I don't even begin my own faith. He does. And I pray that God
would bless this And God would open the eyes of the lost to
see it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. And I pray that God would save
sinners. May God give us grace to see
this is not This is not about theatrics. This is about your
soul, friends. It's not about your physical
health. It's about your eternal destination. I know we always say, it's not
me. You know, it'll be somebody else. It'll be somebody else.
He's not talking to me. No, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. Believe on Christ or die in your rage. I'm so thankful he's given me
mercy. Five, I still need his grace. Now, one second. If He leaves
me for one second, surely I'd be lost forever. Give us grace, O Lord, to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know this. We have confidence
that our Savior has saved us. I pray that God will bless this
through your hearts. Let's have the men come forward for the
Lord's table.